Jeddah Municipality has one of the country’s worst records in terms of tender processes and project delivery, according to a report compiled by the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs.
The report looked at the performance of municipalities and secretariats across the country for the 2011/2012 fiscal year, according to sources quoted by local media.
Jeddah Municipality is one of the four worst performing municipalities in the country, said the sources, but did not specify which other administrations had also performed badly.
The sources said Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs Prince Mansour bin Miteb sent a telegram to Jeddah municipality demanding it submit regular reports on projects and tenders.
Jeddah Mayor Hani Abu Ras has called on all departments to carry out the minister’s orders.
Prince Mansour stressed that steps must be taken to deal with weaknesses and shortcomings and ensure projects are completed on time.
The ministry had earlier ordered Jeddah Municipality to list the reasons for delayed projects and why it had abandoned the principle of competition in awarding contracts.
Reliable sources said Prince Mansour held an urgent meeting with the Jeddah mayor to get a briefing on all delayed projects.
“The minister asked for a detailed report on the projects that were included in the budgets of the fiscal year 2011/2012,” said the source.
The request included all new projects and ones rolled over from the previous year.
Prince Mansour also wanted a list of companies that had lost bids for contracts, projects that went over deadline by more than 25 percent, and those projects that had failed to meet deadlines and had therefore resulted in expired contracts.
Another meeting is scheduled soon to discuss measures taken to solve these problems, the sources said.